Thanks

Thank you all for your comments to my last posting, you are all wonderful, lovely people.

I just want to wish you all a lovely and Happy New Year to each and every one who takes the time to stop off at my blog.

Love to you all xxx

Aah, bliss

Aah, peace and quiet, bliss. Had a lovely busy Christmas. House full for the last two and a half days. Eight for Christmas lunch and 12 for Boxing day lunch. House looked like a bomb had hit it when I got up this morning! We had a fun night though.Waved goodbye to the family this morning then Hubby and I had a blitz on the house. All I plan to do now is chill! I'm going to laze around all day, read my new cook books and snooze. We shall eat leftovers as I am doing no cooking today then it's to work tonight to do a night shift.

Welcome to my new follower Anita.

See you all tomorrow : )

Merry Christmas 2011

A Merry Christmas to each and every one of my followers and readers. Have a lovely day with your families whichever way you choose to celebrate Christmas.

I feel quite worn out and tired sat here blogging whilst listening to carols being sang on the TV and sipping a glass of wine. Got up after about four hours sleep after my night shift and started the food prep. Hubby had been cleaning the downstairs shower room and running last errands. Daughter No3 and Hubby helped a lot with food preparation. After hours in the kitchen daughter declared she had to sit down her legs were aching : ) Just glanced at the clock and it's officially Christmas day now. 12.02 Merry Christmas!

I've got my table ready for the big lunch. Daughters set the table.

Crockery ready to be used

My fridge full of food and not one morsel shall be wasted. I have prepared food stored in all corners of the garden, garage and house that is cool because my fridge is too full to take anymore.

So enjoy your festivities and I shall enjoy mine and be back as soon as I get a moment in these busy few days x

Thoughts of 2012

I've started to think about 2012 and the way I shop. I am getting increasingly frustrated at the silly price increases in the big supermarkets and their scheming ways at deceiving us. I'm getting to the stage I hate to give the big boys our hard earned cash so I'm making a new year resolution to rearly shop in the big supermarkets again in the new year. Now I never make new year resolutions because nobody ever sticks to them but this is one I feel so passionate about I know I will stick to it. I also want to help the local businesses and I think we should all do our bit to make sure they don't go under. I do use them but I know I can use them more.

My plan is to only buy our meat from the family butcher in the village a mile away. I do use this butcher but it is more expensive than the supermarket but the quality is great and all the meat is from local farmers. I shall buy  a few varieties of meat from the butcher each week and menu plan from there.  There's a deli/bakers in the village a mile away I can buy bits from. I am going to use a local farmers shop for all my veg. They are very cheap on potatoes ( I buy all my potatoes from them) but out of season veg can be expensive there but seasonal is really cheap. Got to start eating only seasonal veg which I'm not good at.  I will still buy my eggs from the egg farmer, they are so cheap there. I plan to use Aldi still. I find their prices rarely alter and they have great deals on their 6 fruit/veg deals each week.

Now the dilemma. Where do I buy my yeast, bread flour, Yorkshire t-bags etc when Aldi don't stock these? I could use The Co-op in the village a mile away but because it's a village store the prices are really inflated and I'm on a budget here. This is one I'm going to have to think harder about before I start this the first week of January. Any suggestions welcome.

Homemade Mc D

Firstly, welcome to my new followers, Anne and Debbie. Lovely to have you on board.

Fridges all cleaned and filled up today with my Tesco delivery. Keeping up with the ironing, don't want to end up with a massive pile to tackle after Christmas. I'm still not feeling christmassy. I'm feeling even less christmassy after my walk with the dog because the weather is so mild. Enjoying watching Christmas cookery programmes and documentaries about Christmas stuff.

Today we are having homemade beef burgers and daughter No3 has been wanting homemade onion rings with a meal for weeks now so I am making some today.

ONION RINGS

120g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
good grinding black pepper
1 egg
200ml milk
2 large onions
Breadcrumbs

Mix flour, baking powder, salt & pepper in a bowl.
Mix egg & milk in another bowl.
Slice onion and separate slices into circles. save smaller centres of onion to reuse in another dish.
Toss onion rings in the seasoned flour.
Mix egg & milk mixture into remaining flour.
Dip each onion ring in the batter then in the breadcrumbs.
Deep fry until golden brown.
Drain on kitchen paper.

The bits of leftover onion will be chopped and half added to my coleslaw,

and half added to the burger mix.

All that needs to be done now is the cooking

Better than any Mc D rubbish.

Menu plan & a busy week

I may have everything sorted that I need to buy for Christmas but it does not mean I can sit back and relax now until Christmas day. If only. Today is like a Chinese laundry here. I've had two washer loads already finished and drying on the radiators and airer. Both daughters beds have been stripped and are currently in the washer. I have done a pile of ironing and  I have shampooed the living room carpet with the carpet cleaner to freshen it up for Christmas. I still have 3 double beds to change because all the beds will be used over Christmas so lots of washing being done here. Shame Christmas is not hot here. It would make all the Christmas preparations a lot easier if it were. The 3 double beds can wait until tomorrow or Thursday, need to get this lot dry first.

MENU PLAN 19/12/11

MONDAY - Egg, chips and baked beans

TUESDAY - Homemade mince and onion pie, mash, vegetables and gravy

WEDNESDAY - casseroled chicken legs & veg, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings

THURSDAY - Homemade beef burgers, chips and homemade coleslaw

FRIDAY - Tuna pasta and homemade garlic bread

SATURDAY - Takeaway

CHRISTMAS DAY - Prawn cocktail/ pate
                                    Roast turkey/mushroom wellington, roasted carrots & parsnips,
                                    roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, sage & onion stuffing, peas,      
                                    sprouts and gravy
                                    Christmas pudding & custard/ lemon baked cheesecake

BOXING DAY -         Leek & potato soup
                                    Roast pork loin joint, apple sauce, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes,
                                    roasted carrots & parsnips, cauliflower cheese, peas and gravy
                                    Chocolate orange roulade/ pavlova

Shall have a takeaway Christmas Eve as I shall be too busy to make anything. I won't be up until the afternoon that day because I will have worked a night shift Friday night. I have a lot of food to prepare and the Christmas table to set too. Hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly.

Hello!

Hi there, I'm back. Sorry not been posting for ages. Yet again feeling under the weather. Yet again full of cold. I seem to catch one after the other at the moment.

Well, how are the Christmas preps going in your house? Here we are all ready for the big day. Presents all bought and wrapped. Cards all posted. Decorations all up. Some food prepped and in freezer and the shopping order is done and coming later in the week.

My dining room Christmas tree

It's not really feeling very Christmassy yet to me. Hopefully as the week goes on I might get more into the feel of Christmas once I'm rid of this cold.

The weather today was lovely. Cold and frosty but a lovely sunny day.

The water to my right was frozen over and the ground was solid. I was all wrapped up against the cold
and really enjoyed the walk.

LAST WEEKS MENU

Mon - Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and gravy
Tues - Pork loin steaks, apple sauce, boiled potatoes, veg and a creamy sauce

Wed - Fish pie, peas, carrots & broccoli

Yummy fish pie

Thurs - Sausage, mash, veg and gravy
Fri - Spaghetti bolognese &garlic bread
Sat - Chicken/tofu fajitas
Sun - Pork loin ( reduced )roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, vegetables and gravy

We had lots of dinners last week. It's that time of year when I tend to cook lots of them. I shall do next weeks plan tomorrow.

I shall sit now and watch the final of Strictly Dancing. I don't watch it on the Saturday as nobody else in the house likes to watch it so I always watch it the day after on my own. I know who won so that's spoilt my enjoyment a bit. Heard it on the bloody radio this morning. Hubby had warned me not to watch the TV news because they were talking about the winner on there so I avoided the TV only to have it blurted out on the radio!

Bye for now x